Arbeit Macht Frei – Work will set you free

This place gave me the creeps. I wasn’t exposed to this part of the history as much besides the Nazi was cruel and killed a lot of Jews. Also, by watching X-Men which showed a little of the camp’s entrance in the beginning of the movie. Blame it on my very imaginative mind. My head starts to picture how it was back in 1941 when this concentration camp was built and many died of hunger, hard work and Nazis brutality. Well, let’s just say the picture in my head was a pretty gruesome one. I’m sure back in the days, it is many times worse than what I have in mind. There’s one thing which I learn and it’s stuck in my head till now and it will be forever:

“THE ONE WHO DOES NOT REMEMBER HISTORY IS BOUND TO LIVE THROUGH IT AGAIN” – George Santayana

Once a prisoner here, work will not set them free. Only free from their bodies unless they manage to escape from this camp.

This picture send shivers down my spine. Many around Europe were transported here by train. Women and children were separated from men. Subsequently the SS doctors carried out a selection. 25% of them who were fit for work were directed to the camp. The rest were led to the gas chamber.

Thousands were killed in this courtyard. They’re mainly Poles who were against the German occupation at that time. Those who were sentence to death will be brought here to be shot. There was also another  brutal punishment called “the post”, in which, prisoners were hung from a post by their wrists with their arms twisted behind their back.

This is a model of a gas chamber.

The bodies in the gas chamber will be carried to the crematorium. Before the bodies were burned, inspections were made. Women’s hair will be shaved, gold teeth will be removed, glasses and shoes will be collected.

This is only a small amount of  the deadly Zyklon B gas cans

The amount of shoes collected from the dead people. If you wonder what they do with the items collected, well, all these were sold to generate income to sustain Auschwitz. Human hair were sold for making coats and jackets. It was actually sold to a well known company. Leather shoes and gold teeth were worthy too.

You would have thought that since these people were sent here and they should be carrying their own belongings right? Well, the tricky part is that, in order not to create panic, they were assured to take a bath for disinfection. They should write their name on their luggages and it will be sent to their respective room with hot coffee and food waiting for them after the bath. That was the last they wrote their name and saw their bags.

I think by now, I was pretty annoyed by what I’ve heard and seen. It’s definitely inhumane.

Don’t think it is that easy to escape this camp. When it’s always so cold and with so little food given to the prisoners, it must be a challenge to escape.

It’s so peaceful and quiet here. I don’t think this is the case back in the days. I can only imagine how brutal it is to be here but in reality, I’m sure it’s much worse than what I can imagine.

Auschwitz II- Birkenau. This is about a 15 minutes bus ride from Auschwitz I.

Means of transportation to send prisoners here to Auschwitz. They’ve no seats and everyone has to be packed in like sardines.

The remains of Auschwitz II

These are the bunks where prisoners slept in. It was wet and muddy when Auschwitz II was filled with prisoners.

When the SS realized that the war was coming to an end, they attempted to remove all evidence that happened here. They tried to dismantled and burn the gas chamber, crimetoria, other buildings and documents.

Those were chimneys from the buildings previously used to kept the prisoners. They were never used to keep the prisoners warm. These are only for show when visitors came to visit. To show that the Nazi do take care of their prisoners and visitors will not be suspicious of what they were doing. What happen to the buildings? When the prisoners were liberated by the Red Army on January 27 1945,  they used the planks and bricks from Auschwitz to build homes nearby.

Once the sun sets and the fog comes crawling in, everything is a blur here at Auschwitz, but one can never erase a history and what happened here. This place is a like a huge graveyard especially for the Jews. This place is now recognized by UNESCO in its World Heritage List. If there should be any damages caused by the environment, it will not be rebuilt again. This place is a sad reminder for us mankind and for us who were here, we are responsible to share and pass down this piece of history.

*All information by Auschwitz Museum.